It is tough to say what McMillan did wrong, other than be disliked by the players. That, however, is enough. McMillan had a fine run in seven years in Portland, overseeing several roster turnovers and front office reorganizations on his way to a 266-269 record. He will land elsewhere in time — reuniting with Rich Cho in Charlotte is a logical future unison — but the Blazers, unable to put out the fire, extinguished the accelerant instead. For now, no alternative existed.
For whatever reason, McMillan lost them. A coach not respected is a coach not able to communicate anything, and a coach who can’t communicate anything is a coach who can’t coach. Since Nate couldn’t coach, Nate couldn’t be coach. Instead, the Blazers turn their team over, on an interim basis for now, to a 33-year-old former video co-ordinator, who was a mere intern with the team as recently as seven years ago. As with the playing staff decisions, it is out with the old, and in with the new.
And yet, as with the playing staff, it feels good to downgrade. Instead of rotting at the core, the team can now grow from within.
Portland have nothing cemented in their future, which works in their favor. They now have absolute flexibility over everything, from payroll to personnel, and genuine prosperity from incumbent talents, both coaching and playing staff. They have young talent, more to come, plenty of cap space, and a touted coaching prospect in place. They’ve been bad, much more painfully so than a near-.500 record attests to, and they’ve had to get worse to get better. But in one day, they’ve done just that.
Isn’t that how a rebuild is supposed to be?
